JoMo

You get used to it. It becomes the new normal. 20th street is really depressing since it is a wasteland so you avoid that area, lol. Mother nature has taken over most areas and grown back. It's quite shocking to see places where there were pieces of homes still standing last September (before they were bulldozed), and now it's completely grown over as if a home was never there. Seeing all the rebuilding is a positive step as well. Plus, you have to look to the future and what can be. The city hired Wallace-Bajjali as the master developer last week, this week they announced the projects they are looking to fund. They want to fund/build a lot of housing, a performing arts center, a convention center, a miinor league ballpark, a senior housing complex, an education complex, medical office buildings, a government office building and some others I'm forgetting but over $800 million in total projects. Always have to be looking forward

Feel Good story of the Day: Bootsie, the beloved cat of Mr. Harris, which had been missing since the May 22nd tornado, was found last month and they were reunited over a year after the tornado. Never give up hope. http://www.joplinglobe.com/topstories/x694484569/Cat-lost-in-May-22-tornado-reunited-with-owner “That’s the first time in my life — I’d always heard the term but never experienced it — that I wept for joy,” Harris said. *“I’d given up,” he said. “About 10 months I kept my hopes high, but I thought, ‘Well, he’s gone.’” At the end of June, Harris got a phone call from someone at the shelter, telling him Bootsie had been found and brought in. A moment of disbelief was quickly washed away by happiness, Harris said. “I was just ecstatic,” he said. “It’s the best news I’d had in years and years.” Lysa Buehler, the shelter manager, said Bootsie had been found near 32nd Street and Grand Avenue. He wasn’t very happy, but he was in “pretty good shape,” which she said indicates that he had likely been living somewhere and being fed regularly. He was still wearing his identification tags, which is how staff were able to match him back up with Harris. Harris said he was concerned that his cat wouldn’t remember him. Bootsie had always been a finicky feline, preferring Harris’ company over anyone else’s, he said. He hoped that the year hadn’t changed his cat too much, and he found he needn’t have worried. “He loved me to death,” he said. “He couldn’t get enough loving.” Harris said Bootsie has adjusted “very well” to being back home in the week since he was found. He’s scared of everyone but his owner, who won’t let him go outside without a leash, but he otherwise seems happy and healthy, Harris said.

Chelsea Clinton's story finally aired on NBC Nightly News. About Liz's Cupcake shop coming back http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/grand-re-opening-for-joplin-businesses/67nkqo7 Interview with city manager Mark Rohr. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/the-spirit-of-joplin-a-can-do-attitude/6kkgi73 The new St. Johns (Mercy) sounds like it's going to be pretty badass. http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/x2004646062/Mercy-Hospital-Joplin-being-built-to-weather-another-EF-5 *The central utility plant will be away from the hospital. It will be beefed up with a hardened exterior,” Meuschke said. “It will house the emergency equipment and generators. *Two of the new hospital’s nine floors also will be underground. That will include 14 operating rooms, shielded by concrete walls on three sides and the full length of the hospital on the fourth side. The lower floors will serve as evacuation areas for the hospital. In the above-ground floors, safe zones with heavy-duty metal doors will be included. *About 75 men and women, mostly from the Joplin area, are working at the site. The number will grow to a peak of 600 people in the summer of 2014.

Google is updating their street view of Joplin, which makes me kind of sad since there is no possible way I can save all the before images from the tornado zone. I kind of relied on Google Maps to go back and see where something was or what it looked like before. It's also pretty amazing seeing how quickly mother nature has reclaimed the land where people aren't rebuilding. You would have assumed there had never been buildings there based on the overgrowth of weeds/grass. It just looks like a field in places where the foundations have been removed, I wasn't really expecting that to happen so quickly. This was the Elks Lodge (other one was leveled) on Halloween of last year, they were just digging out where it would be: And Friday June 22nd of this year: This was a street at the 6 month mark after the tornado: Same neighborhood at the 13 month mark (notice how it's filling in?) Many of the people here have moved back into their homes. Someone recently uploaded a video that was an hour after the tornado moved through. At about 1:55 she gasps as she realizes that's a car wrapped around that pole. They are walking north on either Wall or Joplin street until they get to 26th.

Construction has surpassed $635 million in building permits since the tornado. This figure includes the $269.4 million permit for the new Mercy Hospital but does not include the $185 million in estimated reconstruction of the Joplin School District. http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/x138780007/Construction-surpasses-635-million-since-tornado Pic of the Verona, MO corn maze this year. https://www.facebook.com/VeronaCornMaze The Kansas City Chiefs were in town helping rebuild houses with Habitat for Humanity as part of the Governor's Challenge. http://www.kcchiefs.com/news/article-2/Chiefs-find-hope-progress-in-return-trip-to-Joplin/832ae025-8d40-4336-acd7-b5aea9aaf2b4 Two Joplin Parks have been closed due to high lead and cadmium levels after the tornado. New soil will have to be brought in. This gives the city time to repair the parks as well. http://www.koamtv.com/story/18802438/two-joplin-parks-close-due-to-lead-contamination A lot of homeowners are opting to get storm shelters or rebuild with basements after the tornado. http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/x1291711106/Joplin-homeowners-opting-for-safety-during-rebuilding The couple in the first part of this story lost at least 10 neighbors. This is their street 10 days after the tornado More large aerial pics can be found at: http://xpda.com/joplinTornado/

Got some new pics, and updates: -68% of the houses and apartments damaged or destroyed are under permit or rebuilt. -85% of the businesses affected have reopened or relocated to somewhere in the city, 25 new businesses have opened up. -About 1/2 the families living in the FEMA housing have returned to more permanent homes. -Corporate sponsorship for Home Building projects will be announced soon from Rebuild Joplin. I understand Toyota has a "major" announcement. I'm seeing the sunflowers bloom in places again this year. They weren't there before the tornado but I guess the tornado carried seeds or something. There was a tree here, it was destroyed in the tornado but it decided to come back. I took a pic of it in August of last year, I figured it would die. I was wrong: (notice the regrowth of houses behind it ) St. Paul's church continues to come along nicely and the exterior with probably be finished in another month or so. St. John's has been fully gutted. You can now see through both towers. They pushed the insides out the windows and are sorting it so it can be recycled. They hope to have it completely finished by September. You can see more construction going on in the foreground:

I'm getting around to reading the 1 year Joplin Metro magazine articles now. I just read the articles about the immediate response from our fire/police/public works/city manager. Since the articles aren't online, I've written about them here: Fire Chief Mitch Randles and City Manager Mark Rohr met at around the 2400 block of Main right after the tornado. Rohr spotted two police officers and got them to relay to dispatch to get all the department heads to the EOC (emergency operations center), Rohr and Randles then started rescuing people in the area but decided he (Rohr) should go to the EOC to develop a plan. He asked city workers to call all surrounding towns for help and he assigned the police department to send two officers to tour and list the damage. He doesn't remember much between 6:30 and 9:30 PM. His command staff arranged a helicopter to take him up so he could survey the damage area and at 9:30 a Tulsa helicopter with night vision arrived and he was in shock when he saw the extent of the damage. The public works directors got their crews to work clearing the streets and requested help from surrounding towns and cities. They helped the utility companies coordinate their work, and found them radios so they could communicate with each other. The police chief found that his officers had already put to work their emergency response training. Instead of trying to manage the devastation as one, they had divided into four quadrants and set up operations in each quadrants. Public works, and private contractors (ordinary citizens) who came to help got the roads cleared really quickly which enabled emergency responders access to the hardest hit areas. Joplin employed a unified command from the start, they got all the department heads together and made a decision as a group. Not one person, or one group stood up and said 'I'm in charge'. When the governor arrived, he didn't take control, he made it clear that he was here to support the city leaders, the Missouri Highway Patrol didn't take over, they also made it clear they were here to support the leaders as well. At one point, the St. Louis County police chief was out directing traffic because one of the Joplin corporals asked him for help. Joplin had full control the first 72 hours, which is the crucial time in a disaster. The State and Federal people that arrived never asked for the control to be removed from the local government. One of the key factors in Joplin's recovery has been that government officials have allowed the community to rebuild itself. The Joplin Police Department learned from Hurricane Katrina that there needs to be law and order. Instead of the police department doing search and rescue, they made the decision to support search and rescue but they, themselves would not be search and rescue. Joplin's public information officer, as well as Springfield, MO's public information officers and several state and federal public information officers created a joint information center to immediately distribute information to the public. That was something they had never thought of doing before and it worked out really well. MSSU (local college) became a Red Cross shelter and triage center. Due to the tornado and all the open pipes to peoples houses that were shooting water out, the campus had low water pressure. The staff solved that problem by pulling water out of the swimming pool in 55 gallon rubber Brutes and transferring it to the different buildings and using that water to flush the toilets. They created a bus system that would haul more than 4,000 volunteers daily from the campus to the tornado zone. On the communication side, due to the loss of several cell phone towers, it was difficult getting voice communication in the tornado zone, but text messages did work. There were hundreds of agencies here using a variety of communication systems. everyone from different fire, police departments, etc. They found they could create a relay system by placing a dispatcher in each facility that could communicate with the other dispatchers, effectively tying all the communications systems together.

Almost half of the FEMA housing residents have found places to go. This should increase as more housing/apartments are being built. One that was heavily damaged was just opened a few days ago. http://www.joplinglobe.com/topstories/x1968180907/Almost-half-of-tornado-affected-residents-have-left-FEMA-housing Here's a list of apartments/housing units and when they open (not counting the ones that have already opened)(Hampshire Terrace was the complex you saw on TV a lot): Plaza Seniors, 1501 Rex Ave., 56 units, to be open this summer. Plaza Senior 2, 1501 Rex Ave., 20 units, to be open this summer. Plaza Apartments 1 and 2, 1715 Rex Ave., 174 units, to be open this summer. Plaza Towers, 1631 Rex Ave., 54 units, to be open in September. Bartlett Hills (Joplin Public Housing units), 24th Street and McCoy Avenue, 75 units, to be open this fall. Murdock Apartments, 21 S. Rhode Island Ave., 44 units, to be open in late October. Hope Cottages, 32 scattered single-family homes throughout tornado area, four units available each month beginning in November, low-income tax credit. Delaware Duplex Community, 20th Street and Maryland Avenue, 20 units, four units available each month starting in September. Union City Homes, scattered single-family detached homes throughout tornado area, 38 units, first unit open in October. Eagle Ridge walk-up apartments, 611 W. 25th St., 40 units, open in spring 2013. Parkwood Senior Housing, 1300 N. Range Line, 42 units, open in spring 2013. Hampshire Terrace II, 2100 Hampshire Terrace, 84 units, open first quarter of 2013. Canyon Trails, 1300 W. 17th St., 52 apartments and duplexes, open spring 2013. Forest Park Apartments, 29th Street and McClelland, 32 units, first 12 units open December 2012. Fry Construction, 1800 and 1900 S. Connecticut, 18 units, unknown opening date. Apartments at 2900 S. McClelland, 28 units, unknown opening date. Chelsea Clinton was back in town again for the re-opening of Cupcakes by Liz a few days ago. The piece should air on June 11th on NBC (Nightly News I assume) http://www.joplinglobe.com/topstories/x1968180921/Joplins-story-keeps-captivating El Vaquero has announced they are coming back. Lots of people liked to eat at that Mexican restaurant on Main.

Different areas have different siren policy. Quad City area blows them for 70 MPH winds and hail. http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dvn/?n=sirenqcmetro#faq9 OKC area for a lot of stuff: http://city-sentinel.com/?p=835 This Wisconsin area does 3-5 mins as well: http://www.co.chippewa.wi.us/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=326&Itemid=389 Jasper, IN only activate for tornado warnings: http://www.14news.com/story/16654320/jasper-making-change-to-storm-siren-policy

This is actually the first I've heard of the "Joplin effect", basically talks about how the community came together and how people want to help those that help themselves : http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2012/05/24/the-joplin-effect/SxylpZvUwFPR1MxF36CdsI/story.html Associated Press video about Insulated Concrete Form houses: Interview with CJ Tate, the young mother who lost her son, Skyular Logsdon in the tornado: Interview with a resident who lost his home: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IZUn3n7jGo

Is he still going on about the sirens? I can't recall the last time, other than May 24th of last year (due to the amount of debris and people from outside the area here), that they were activated for 75+ mph severe t-storm winds. Mr. Smith made it seem like they were activating them for every t-storm warning, which wasn't true. I remember back in the 90's, i think it was, they decided that they would activate them for 75+ mph winds due to the city being hit with high winds that did quite a bit of damage and there was no siren activation for that. Joplin's sirens are only activated if part of Joplin is in the tornado warning polygon or a spotter or someone sees an actual tornado. It is a 3 minute activation. There is a discrepancy in the times that the sirens were going off in Joplin. I posted at 5:17 on here that the sirens were going off. The city says they were set off at 5:11 but I think I posted that as they were going off, and the second tornado warning was issued at 5:17. The city also says they set the sirens off a second time at 5:31. The National Weather Service says the tornado didn't touch down until 5:34, and as you can clearly see on Jeff Piotrowski's video, the tornado was crossing Schifferdecker street and was very large by the time the sirens started going off which would give an actual time of the second activation around 5:36-5:37. I would rather the sirens be on constantly when a confirmed tornado is moving into the city because if they were activated for another 3 minutes at 5:36-5:37 then the tornado would have been near the high school when they shut off again which was roughly halfway through the city. The reason people thought the sirens 'went off all the time', was because of the weekly testing at 10 AM every Monday. So, Joplin has changed to testing every 2 weeks, and are upgrading the sirens with silent testing technology.

The "Walk of Unity" was today. Estimates are that 6,000-8,000 participated in the walk and 8,000-10,000 were at Cunningham Park for the ceremony. I saw two hot air balloons today, which is rare around here. There were stops for a steeple raising at a church and groundbreaking at Joplin High School for the new school and a stop for kids where Irving Elementary used to be before going to Cunningham Park for the ceremony. News media from all over was here. I saw the TWC's Tornado Hunt truck, CNN's truck, etc... http://www.joplinglo...ado-anniversary Mercy/St. Johns donated land to Stained Glass theater for a community theater, and the City of Joplin to build a tornado museum. Both of those projects would need to find funding. Mercy has stated they will build a chapel at the former site of St. Johns and maybe an amphitheater. This is in addition to the land they donated to Irving Elementary which also had groundbreaking today. http://www.joplinglo...w-Joplin-museum The first Convoy of Hope house (Insulated Concrete Forms) was given to it's owner today as well: http://www.joplinglo...ornado-survivor CBSNews report on that house actually. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y77Wf5usKP8

I just double checked. It is 6 miles (more east instead of NE though) from the center of Galena to the center of Joplin. You've cracked the case.

The radio was also giving public reports that they were getting in. One report indicated the tornado was at 7th and Rangeline. That report was incorrect and may have resulted in people heading south away from that area towards the Home Depot at 20th and Rangeline which was ultimately destroyed. If the NWS says Galena moving NE, most people in southern Joplin feel safe as it would be moving away from them. Doug Heady (Joplinmet) doesn't pay a lot of attention to the NWS warnings, and he was circling the area of rotation which was nearly over me, so he had the correct location when he went on air on KOAM either a few minutes before, or right as the tornado was touching down. They have a tower cam at 7th and Rangeline but they were unable to see the actual tornado until it was near that location due to it being wrapped in rain. Mr. Smith may have been referring to the KSN telecast. You can clearly see power flashes and the tornado on the ground as the video starts. They don't seem to catch on that it's a tornado on the ground until about 30 seconds or so into the video. Jeremiah Cook (weekend weather guy) and Catilyn McCardel (weekend meteorologist) were the two on the video.

I think that is what happened. If you take off the 6 miles NE of Galena, other than the incorrect heading and speed, it makes more sense.

Yep, that was the mistake. The tornado was not 6 miles NE of Galena and it was not moving NE at 45. The area was in the polygon either way, just the SVS statement was incorrect. I think the next tornado warning was issued at 5:48.

Yes, it was a confusing situation. At around 5:20, there were 3 areas of rotation, although the one north of these two had become really broad and diffuse. By 5:29, the tornado still had not touched down but you can see the couplet really tightening up east of Galena. By 5:38-5:39 the tornado was located in Joplin (Iron Gates is Joplin) The location of it at this time is marked by the pink dot.

I said my only complaint was the messed up SVS statement that put the tornado where there wasn't one. They indicated the tornado was 6 miles NE of Galena, which would have been too far north. You can see Galena on the map and the track was NOT NE of Galena. http://www.crh.noaa.gov/sgf/?n=event_2011may22_summary I have no idea what Mr. Smith is talking about when they issued the earlier warnings and about Riverton or whatever. I also don't know what he meant about the actual time it touched down. It was pretty much on the western edge of the city when it touched down. There was maybe 1-2 minutes before it started hitting parts of Joplin.

There was no tornado where they indicated. The trained spotters were indicating the tornado that was in the southern box, the actual Joplin tornado. It was quickly corrected.

5:42 AT 538 PM CDT...TRAINED WEATHER SPOTTERS REPORTED A TORNADO NEAR JOPLIN...OR 6 MILES NORTHEAST OF GALENA...MOVING NORTHEAST AT 45 MPH. http://www.americanwx.com/bb/index.php/topic/18858-devastating-tornado-strikes-joplin-missouri/page__st__595__p__721723#entry721723

My only complaint was with the SVS that mentioned it being 6 miles NE of Galena. They were keying in on the rotation to the north and they combined the warning to the north and south in that SVS.

Basically this: http://meteorologicalmusings.blogspot.com/2012/05/joplin-was-essentially-blindsided-by.html

Estimated 10,000 people at Cunningham Park. Yes, this is a real Hot Air Balloon.

This is what it looked like about 6 blocks to my SW. Part 3 of the Jasper County Coroners story.... heart breaking towards the end. http://www.kansascity.com/2012/05/21/3621640/in-joplin-pain-remains.html Part 1 is here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/05/19/3618823/the-hardest-call-the-joplin-tornado.html Part 2 is here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/05/20/3619904/joplin-coroner-its-about-being.html Yahoo takes a look back at some of the photos then, and now. http://news.yahoo.com/photos/joplin-s-tornado-then-and-now-slideshow/ The White House looks back: http://www.whitehouse.gov/joplin "Today" show segment: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47518809#.T7u4i0VSQ9Z CBS article (one of those blue balloon things actually landed in my backyard today, lol) http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57439190/joplin-commemorates-anniversary-of-deadly-tornado/ There are a lot of articles and information out there, I'm feeling a bit overloaded and will have to take the rest in on a day by day basis.

Thanks so much. It has been a year I'll never forget. I never thought I'd see something like this. I thought I'd share it with all.